Counter Force
by MagicMan01
Summary: Counter Force is a global elite counterterrorist organization that is relatively new but highly effective. When four of its members resolve a hostage crisis in downtown Tokyo, they soon learn that the seemingly isolated incident is actually part of a far more sinister plot involving a plan to completely cripple the world's economy. YūsukexKeiko, KuwabaraxYūkina, and HieixMukuro.
1. Setting the Scene

**This story is sort of an adaptation of another **_**Yū Yū **_**fic I once did a while back where Yusuke was a police detective and Keiko was a rape victim, titled **_**The Witness**_**. Unfortunately, I didn't really have much of an idea as to just what I wanted to do with it and I ended up scrapping it like only five chapters in. However, I wanted to do a fic with the Spirit Detective gang in some kind of elite combat group, so that's basically where this came from. While this is partly based off of that now-nonexistent fic, the main inspiration came from Tom Clancy's **_**Rainbow Six **_**series.**

**As this is a fic dealing with a counterterrorist team, you can be sure to expect **_**plenty **_**of violence and swearing throughout, as well as some sexual stuff here and there. If you don't like things like that, well then all I can say is that you're reading the wrong story. Ha ha ha.**

**Warning: Graphic violence and language.**

**-Disclaimer- I don't own anything from **_**Yū Yū Hakusho**_**, nor **_**Rainbow Six**_**.**

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Setting the Scene**

"I am standing here in front of the Nakamori Building in downtown Tokyo where a group of armed men have taken an entire floor of people hostage!" the female reporter raised her voice above the din of the anxious crowd in front of her, as well as the police sirens and various helicopters around the active crime scene. A small group of policemen around her were standing in front of the yellow caution tape they'd put up, preventing the people on the other side of it from crossing over.

"This building is the headquarters for the globally renowned Nakamori Financial Corporation," the woman continued, gesturing to the forty-story building behind her for emphasis, "or as it's popularly known here in Tokyo and around the world, NFC. About thirty minutes ago, what is rumored to be half a dozen armed men stormed into the lobby and opened fire on its occupants with automatic weapons. Two people were killed and seven more were wounded in the attack. The group of assailants then took an elevator up to the thirty-first floor, where they are now currently holding as many as three dozen people hostage. We're not completely sure whether these men are terrorists or what their motives are behind this attack, but we'll have more details out as the situation progresses."

The woman appeared as if she were about to say something else when she suddenly paused and put her free hand up to her ear. Her eyes visibly widened for a brief moment before she returned her gaze to the camera, putting the microphone up to her mouth to begin speaking again.

"I-I've just received word that a small group of what appear to be special forces operators have landed by helicopter on the roof of the building! From the description I've just received, this team does not seem to be part of Tokyo's Special Assault Team. Whoever they are, they are currently taking up positions on the rooftop and seem to be preparing to rappel down the building!"

* * *

"Eagle to team, Eagle to team," the holder of the call sign addressed the other three men he was with through the microphone in his headset, talking a bit louder than he normally would to account for the high winds blowing through the open air of the rooftop. "Is everyone in position?"

He was readying his rappelling equipment and checking his safety harness on the edge of the roof, the sheer height not bothering him in the slightest; he'd been higher up in the air than just a forty-story building before. Two of his three teammates were also doing the same thing, as the other one was on top of the building across from them observing the scene nine stories below them through the scope of his sniper rifle.

"This is Bear," the first of the three men responded with a gruff sounding voice. "In position on the west side of the roof."

"Fox reporting in," a second, softer voice replied. "Ready on the roof's east side."

Eagle silently acknowledged the two of them while waiting for the third man. When he didn't hear anything on the other end of his mic, he called out to him over the channel. "Eagle to Snake, Eagle to Snake. What is your position?" Another few moments, and...

...still nothing.

Eagle rolled his brown eyes and sighed heavily. Goddamn it, why wasn't he picking up?! He was just about to make a second call when he got his answer.

"Snake in position on the roof across from you on the south side of the building, Eagle," a voice belonging to a quite bored sounding man replied.

Eagle rolled his eyes once more and breathed out a sigh of relief - and a bit of frustration, as well - when he heard this and quickly returned with, "Thank you, Snake." The words were heavily laced with sarcasm, he had to admit, but the bastard deserved it for nearly giving him a heart attack!

Snake had been the first one out of the helicopter when it had dropped him off separately from the other three, as he was an excellent marksman and Eagle wanted to put his skills to good use. He knew exactly where the other man was, but as part of protocol, he still had to check in.

"You're welcome, Eagle," the other said, his own words dripping with verbal irony as well.

Eagle couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Someone didn't have their coffee this morning..."

"I don't drink _coffee_, Eagle; I drink _tea_," he replied bitingly. "Or have you forgotten that already?"

Another chuckle from Eagle. "Oh, I'm sorry, Snake. Allow me to rephrase my previous statement: Someone didn't have their _tea _this morning."

On the rooftop across from them, Snake rolled his eyes irritably and sighed heavily into his mic. _You know, if you popped your little head up from where it is right now, I would probably have a clear shot to be able to blow it right off._

Crazy as it may have seemed, his internal conversation with Eagle wasn't entirely irrational; the man _did _piss him off to the highest degree possible on a daily basis, but he _was _the team leader after all so Snake was forced to abide by his leadership. Still though, it didn't make the man any less infuriating than he was. How they were friends outside of this, he honestly had no idea.

He just sighed and continued to peer into the thirty-first story through the scope of his Howa M1500 "Heavy Barrel" modeled rifle. Sometimes he questioned just why exactly he did the things he did. He swore under his breath as the high winds forced him to readjust his aim. As if that weren't bad enough, right as he was doing this a news helicopter passed right through his line of sight in between the two buildings. He growled to himself, tempted to turn his rifle on whoever was flying the damned thing rather than the group of terrorists in the building across from his own. He just couldn't catch a damn break today!

_Well, there's the obligatory media coverage... _he thought, rather annoyed.

"Snake," Eagle's smooth voice called out over the channel once more to interrupt his internal monologue, this time much more serious, "do you have a clear visual of the thirty-first floor?"

Ah, an actual _good _question. "Yes. From what I can tell, there's about two dozen hostages - give or take a few - and five Tangos all armed with assault rifles and submachine guns." He knew what Eagle was going to ask him next before the words even left his lips.

"Automatics?" Eagle ventured, knowing the answer but asking anyway just to be one hundred percent _sure_.

"Affirmative."

Eagle sighed on the other end. "Figured." He had known the answer beforehand, but perhaps some part of him had wished his fellow teammate would tell him otherwise just for the sake of some good news.

A few moments' pause, and then he shifted right into command mode. "All right, here's the plan of attack: Bear, Fox, we're gonna rappel down to the thirty-second floor right above the entry point, and when I give the order, Bear's going to go in first. As soon as he's in, Fox will follow and I'll go in last when he's inside. Snake, you're on overwatch; when we're all in the building, you lay down covering fire for us. Remember guys, they've got twenty plus hostages in there so watch your fire, _especially_ when you're breaching in."

"Rules of engagement, Eagle?" Bear asked.

"Shoot to kill," Eagle replied almost automatically.

"Do you think we will need air support, Eagle?" Fox inquired.

"No, it's gonna be too tight in there. If things get messy, Snake will have us covered from the other building. Use your flashbangs if you need to, but no smoke grenades; we don't need hostages running around in the confusion and we don't have thermal gear to see anything through the haze even if we wanted to."

"Understood, Eagle."

Sensing no further questions from his three teammates, Eagle said, "Okay guys, check your gear and ready up; we're going down in thirty seconds. Also, make sure you have at least a hundred feet of slack on your ropes."

The three of them prepared for the descent in the scant thirty seconds they had; taking the safety settings off of their MP5 submachine guns, checking the lengths of their ropes and making sure they were tightly secured to the rooftop, pulling their black balaclavas up and over their faces so only their eyes were now visible, _et cetera_. Eagle checked his watch, and when the thirty seconds had passed, he looked up at his other two teammates on the other sides of the roof.

"All right, on me," he ordered. "Everyone ready? Okay, let's go!"

No sooner had the last words left his mouth than had he jumped backwards off the roof and swung out into midair, gravity pulling him back towards the building. He braced his legs and gently touched his feet against the glass of the window as he met it and gripped the rope tightly in one hand. Loosening up on the rope, he kicked off once more and repeated the process several more times. He couldn't actually see Bear or Fox from his current position, but he knew that they were probably in near-perfect coordination with him as they made their way down the tall building, like a pair of Olympic synchronized swimmers.

* * *

Keiko Yukimura tried not to shake or quiver as the gun toting men circled around the office, occasionally threatening or terrorizing the random people they picked out. She was sitting on her knees on the south side of the room by a cubicle, hands on the back of her head and head bowed. Her long brown bangs concealed her terrified expression as she shut her eyes tight, wishing she was somewhere else; _anywhere _other than here, really. The men had already killed one of her coworkers when they'd burst into the office guns blazing and she certainly didn't want to share the same fate as him.

She cringed when she heard one of said men shouting at a woman, one she'd worked with before but didn't know very well. The man threatening her was claiming that she was making too much noise and needed to shut up before he did it for her, though Keiko hadn't heard her say or do anything in the slightest besides scream when the men had stormed their office. She very well knew why he was doing what he was, though; he wanted the woman to fear him, to be completely and utterly petrified of his presence to the point where she would do anything he told her to so long as he didn't hurt her.

Keiko shuddered as thoughts of just exactly what those commands might entail ran through her mind, but she tried to ignore them as she heard another one of the men coming around yet again. She curled into herself, trying not to whimper or let her body show any signs of fear in his presence. She heard the sounds of his boots as they fell heavily on the carpet. He was getting closer and closer by the second and she had a distinct feeling that he wasn't going to leave her alone this time.

He was only a few feet away now. She could clearly hear him slowly coming up behind her and she couldn't refrain from letting out a small whimper. What would he do when he got to her? Yell at her? Grab her by the hair and beat her? Hit her with the butt of his gun? _Shoot _her?

She heard him walk slightly past her before turning around and kneeling on the ground. _Please go away, please go away, please go away! _she thought in a panic.

It was no use, however; she felt a gloved hand roughly grab her by the chin and jerk her head upwards. Her eyes remained shut though, as she had no desire whatsoever to-

"Open your eyes!" the man's voice commanded.

Well, it appeared she no longer had a choice in the matter. Slowly, she opened her eyes for the man, revealing to him their brown, chocolaty color that was shimmering with fear. She flinched at the feel of the cold barrel of the automatic weapon under her chin.

The man brushed the hair out of her eyes and chuckled. "You're a cute little thing, aren't ya?" He reached out to touch her cheek and she flinched once again as a gloved hand caressed it.

"P-Please!" Keiko begged, on the verge of tears and trying to ignore the man's touch. "W-We don't have any money here! We just keep track of it electronically!"

"Oh, I know that," the man told her matter-of-factly. "That's not what we're here for, though."

"Th-Then what do you want with us?!" her body shook fearfully. "Why are you _doing_ this?!"

The man chuckled, leaning in a bit closer. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough, sweetie."

Keiko swallowed hard, her heart pounding against her ribs and threatening to burst right out of her chest. There was absolutely nothing that could stop this man from doing whatever he wanted to her and she was terrified by the possibilities that her imagination began concocting.

* * *

With one last kick, Eagle met a window of the thirty-second floor and yanked on his rope to brake, resting his feet against the window to take some of the strain off his muscles. Quickly switching hands, he gripped the rope tightly in his left hand while reaching for his MP5 with the other, finding the grip and grasping it as he drew the weapon up and readied it to fire when the time soon came.

"Fox, Bear," he quietly addressed both men over their frequency channel, even though it was very unlikely that anyone in the building could hear what he was saying, "you in position?"

Both replied affirmatively. Now the only one left out of the loop was Snake...

"Snake, we're at the thirty-second floor," he announced to him. "Do we have a clearing?"

"Give me a minute here, Eagle," the marksman replied. He was waiting for a certain man wielding an Uzi submachine gun to turn his back to the window from which Bear would be entering. When he did a few moments later, Snake said, "Okay, you're good to go."

"Confirmed," Eagle acknowledged. "All right, Bear; you're up."

"Roger that," Bear replied in his deep, gruff tone of voice. "Preparing to breach."

Checking his weapon just one more time, he drew in a deep breath, kicked off of the window as hard as he could, and released the rope in his left hand. As gravity drew him down, he gripped the rope tightly to brake as his momentum swung him towards the window of the thirty-first floor. As with the other two men rappelling down the building with him, the selector switch on his gun was set to the "full-auto" position so all he had to do was hold down the trigger to release a hail of bullets and shatter the window in front of him to thousands of tiny pieces.

He saw several people lying on the floor dressed in work clothes - the hostages, no doubt - turn their heads up toward him as he swung through the now-open space, most of them screaming in fear and crawling backwards or trying to hide out of sight. He couldn't blame them, really; it wasn't as if they were used to having guns waved around in their faces and being shot at like he and the others in his team were.

When he reached the apex of the swing, he unclipped his karabiner in midair, did a somersault before hitting the ground, and safely rolled to cover behind a nearby office cubicle, drawing his weapon up close to him.

"What the fuck-?!" he heard one of the terrorists exclaim in surprise before a storm of bullets passed over his head.

Between the deafening gunfire and the ear-piercing screams of fear from the people around him, he had just enough time to yell into his mic, "Bear is in! I repeat; Bear is in!" before he was cut off by the sheer volume of noise around him.

"Roger that!" Eagle acknowledged him, the level of his voice increasing so Bear could hear him through the gunfire. "Fox, you're on!"

"Affirmative!"

Similar to Bear, Fox followed through the same motions and fired through the window on the east side of the building right before he crashed through it. Moments after unhooking his karabiner, he ducked and rolled to crouch down inside of a cubicle, ignoring the screams of the woman inside of it for the time being.

"Fox to Eagle, I am in!" he shouted.

"Got it, Fox!"

With that, Eagle kicked off the window, swung down and out into the air, shot out the window as he was sent careening through it, unhooked his karabiner, hit the floor with a grunt, and rolled behind the wall of a cubicle just as a line of bullets shredded the carpet to pieces right where he had previously landed not even moments ago.

"Eagle to Snake, we're all in! I say again; we are all inside the building! You are clear to engage!"

"Confirmed, Eagle," Snake replied calmly.

* * *

One building away, the black haired man carefully lined up his target through the scope of his rifle; it was a man firing what looked to be an AK-47 assault rifle at his three other teammates on the south side of the thirty-first floor. Holding in a breath for a few seconds and attempting to account for the wind conditions, he slowly exhaled and squeezed the trigger. The .308 caliber Winchester round exited the barrel at a terrific speed, traversing the distance between the two buildings faster than the naked human eye could ever possibly hope to register.

He knew he'd hit his target when a burst of red and pink flew out of the side of the human head he'd been aiming at less than a moment ago and the black clad body which owned that head promptly dropped to the floor; there was also a good sized hole in the window where it had passed through, small spider cracks forming around it from the sheer force and speed of the projectile that had damaged it. Pulling the bolt up and back, he barely registered the metallic sound that the spent brass casing made when it hit the concrete surface of the roof and simply put the bolt back in place, preparing to fire yet again.

He was pleased to see the four remaining men scramble to find cover, smirking darkly. He loved a challenge. _Run and hide, you little bastards, _he thought before seeking out his next potential victim.

* * *

When the three men had swung in through the windows on ropes, Keiko had screamed and thrown herself down on the floor, doing anything she could to avoid being hit by the flying bullets all around her. She covered her ears as well to avoid being temporarily deafened - or permanently, even - by the thunderous sounds of gunfire erupting throughout the small, enclosed space of the office. She could just barely hear one of the masked men yelling something in all the chaos.

"Die, fuckers! I'm gonna fucking kill you all-!"

And then, the voice was abruptly silenced. Keiko's eyes opened wide and she gasped, realizing what must have happened. _Is he... dead?! _she thought.

Curiosity ended up getting the best of her, and cautiously, she slowly crawled to the other side of the cubicle she was hiding behind and peered around the corner. The very moment her eyes found the owner of the voice, she immediately cupped her hands over her mouth, eyes going wide and quickly ducking back down behind the cubicle again.

What she had just seen was an artificial cavity that she assumed must have been created by a bullet from one of the many powerful weapons being fired throughout the office. She couldn't get the image of the man's head - or what was left of it, rather - and its contents and the body which belonged to all of these things lying completely still on the carpeted floor out of her _own _head which, unlike the deceased man pervading her thoughts, was still completely intact. The fresh open wound that exposed his intracranial space, blood spilling out and soaking deep into the carpet, bits of brain and skull fragments scattered around the hole that the bullet had made when it hit the man...

She felt the bile rise up in her throat and tried not to vomit. The sight she had just witnessed would likely stay with her for the rest of her life and it was one she definitely did _not_ want floating around in her unconscious, though she very well knew it would from the psychology classes she'd taken in college.

* * *

The moment Eagle saw the man with the Kalashnikov looking assault rifle drop heavily to the floor from a rather well placed .308 caliber round in the side of his head, he immediately got back on his mic. "Tango down!" he announced. "Nice shot, Snake!"

"Thank you, Eagle," the other man replied smoothly.

Eagle then turned to look at both Fox and Bear from their scattered positions throughout the office. "Okay, Fox and Bear, you are clear to engage! I say again; you are clear to engage!"

"Copy that, Eagle!" both men responded simultaneously.

All three rose ever so slightly from their crouched positions behind the office cubicles and immediately began firing back at the four remaining men on the other side of the room. One man received several shots to the chest before falling backwards and hitting the ground hard, blood leaking profusely out of the many holes now in his body; the other three were faster and took cover behind the cubicles nearest to them.

"Another one down!" said Eagle over the mic.

Not even a moment after saying this, the trio of armed men on the other side of the room opened fire again, bullets flying wildly and striking everything in their paths.

"Fuck, take cover!" Eagle ordered.

The other two men with him did just that and quickly ducked down into a nearby cubicle together. Eagle dove into the one to his immediate right, nearly falling on top of a screaming woman also in it as he hit the floor. It wasn't until he got up into a crouch and put his back to the wall that he saw her cowering under her desk. She was short with blonde hair, appearing to be in her mid-thirties.

"Shit," he swore under his breath. He had to make sure she stayed where she was or it would just be another hostage he would have to chase after. Raising his voice, he directly addressed the woman in front of him as the bullets continued flying over their heads. "Ma'am!" he called out.

However, between her screams and the thunderous gunfire, she wasn't able to hear him. Getting closer to her and leaning in, he shouted, "_Ma'am_!"

This clearly got her attention, as she stopped her screaming and focused on him with wide eyes. Well, at least he had an audience now.

"Ma'am, can you hear me?"

She nodded, too scared to even come up with a simple "yes" to answer the inquiry.

"Okay, I want you to stay right where you are! Do you understand me? Don't move out from under that desk!"

Hesitantly, as if processing what the strong looking man in front of her was telling her to do, she slowly nodded in confirmation.

Eagle nodded back so she knew he understood her and quickly rose to his feet to aim his MP5 over the top of the cubicle. Taking aim at one of the masked men wielding yet _another_ AK-47, he squeezed the trigger to release a hail of bullets at him. Unfortunately, none of them actually hit the man, but they definitely made him duck down in a hurry when they'd come within inches of turning him into Swiss cheese.

As for the woman underneath the desk, she was covering her ears and screaming once more as the loud gunfire erupted right above her, empty brass casings flying all over the cubicle. She felt tears begin to roll down her cheeks as the situation began to take an emotional toll on her. She tried to close her eyes, but for some reason, she kept looking between the man's camouflage patterned legs at the door all the way on the other side of the room.

She knew it would be virtually impossible to get up and run on through to the other side without being hit even once by the storm of bullets zipping through the air, but something inside of her was telling her to do just that very thing. _Run! _it yelled at her. _Get the hell out of here!_

As more brass casings rained down in front of her, she suddenly made up her mind; she was going to run as fast as she possibly could and escape this dangerous situation. Her mind and body were telling her that this was the right thing to do, and not wanting to ignore instinct, she quickly crawled out from under the desk on all fours, stood upright, and broke into a full sprint right out of the cubicle.

Eagle was still firing his weapon when he felt something brush his pant leg and saw a small form stand up behind him out of the corner of his eye. Whipping his head around, he was somewhat shocked to see the woman he'd just told to stay put preparing to run out of the cubicle.

"Ma'am!" he addressed her with a shout.

But she ignored him, breaking into a run and heading for the door.

"Fucking _shit_!" he swore as he fired three more rounds at the men of the same number on the other side of the room, sprinting after the woman as fast as he could. It turned out that she was fast. _Very _fast, actually. _How the hell can she run like that in heels?! _he thought incredulously as he tried to keep up with her. Must have been the adrenaline rush she was probably experiencing right now.

She was about halfway to the door and Eagle knew that if he didn't stop her now, she was bound to get hit before she even got out of the room. Preparing to leap, he sprung off of the carpeted floor and flew through the air with his arms outstretched as if he were trying to catch something that was falling. His heavier body collided with hers and he tackled her to the ground, falling hard on top of her. She felt the wind get knocked out of her and gasped for breath as she fell with a thud, limbs flailing wildly.

"Goddamn it, I told you to stay _put_!" he yelled right before bullets struck the floor around them. "Shit!"

He quickly turned over, still protecting the woman's body with his own and aimed at one of the men shooting at him. However, as soon as he pulled the trigger, a distinctive clicking sound was all he heard. Oh, shit; he must've run out of ammo.

The man shooting at them suddenly collapsed with a groan, lifeless body crumpling to the floor in a heap of black and red. Eagle glanced up to the side and saw Bear wink at him, barrel of his MP5 faintly smoking. It was a wink that said, "You owe me one for that." Eagle knew the expression well; this wasn't the first time Bear had saved his life, after all.

Eagle nodded back and sat up to bring the woman with him, but she began struggling and crying out hysterically, reaching out towards the door. "Ma'am, calm down!" he shouted. This did nothing to soothe her though, and Eagle was acutely aware that the other men in the room were still shooting at him and his teammates. Mentally apologizing to the woman in his grip for what he was about to do, he drew his fist back and coldcocked her right in the temple. Her cries and screams ceased instantly and she fell limp in his arms, unconscious in an instant.

Eagle slung the strap of his submachine gun over his shoulder, and with little effort, he ran back to the cubicle he'd previously been in with the woman over his other shoulder. He slid in as about a dozen rounds flew past him, dropping the woman on the floor. He gently pushed her body under the desk so she wouldn't be in the general line of fire, and standing up, he exchanged the empty thirty-round magazine of his weapon for a fresh one right before cocking it back to load it. Taking aim at a moving terrorist, he carefully squeezed off a few shots at him.

As the man ducked down once more and blindly fired his rifle over the cubicle wall, Eagle heard over his mic, "Jesus, man, what the hell was that?"

Eagle couldn't help but smirk at Bear's incredulous sounding question. "I _told _her to stay where she was, man! Fuck, I _hate _it when they do that..."

"Well, look on the bright side; it's one less hostage we gotta worry about."

"Yeah, but I still don't like having to knock them out to get them to listen to me," Eagle replied flatly as he fired a few more rounds into the cubicle one of the men was hiding behind. "Makes me feel like a real asshole or something."

Bear would have responded if not for the series of gunshots directed his and Fox's way that prompted both of them to hit the ground. "Damn, that was close!" Bear exclaimed.

"Are you all right, Bear?" Fox asked in his typical soft tone, still as cool as an ice cube even in the heat of combat.

Bear checked himself quickly as he sat up before answering. "Yeah man, I'm all good. You okay, Fox?"

"Yes, I sustained no injuries," the redhead answered.

"Well, that's good to hear- _son of a bitch_!"

Eagle suddenly became very concerned. "Bear, what happened? Are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, man," he responded after a moment. "Shot just came through the wall and nearly hit me, that's all."

Eagle breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Still, that was too close for his personal comfort. "These guys are really starting to piss me off. I'm gonna throw a flashbang."

"Yeah, got it, Eagle," Bear acknowledged. "Fox and I'll cover you; just give us the word and we'll be ready to go."

"Copy that, Bear."

Eagle stooped down just below the top of the cubicle so he wouldn't be clearly visible to the pair of black clad men on the other side of the room. Withdrawing an M84 stun grenade from his belt, he held the body of it in his right hand while pulling the pin out with his left. As soon as he did so, he announced rather loudly into his mic, "Flashbang out!" before standing up to throw it.

Fox and Bear stood up at almost the exact same time from the cubicle adjacent to Eagle's, firing dozens of rounds at the couple of terrorists still alive to cover their leader. Eagle drew his arm as far back as it would go and chucked the M84 in the general direction of the two men in much the same manner that a child might throw a baseball to a batter up at home plate during a recreational game. Before it even hit the ground, the three men had ducked down in their hidden positions and covered their ears.

Seconds later, a deafening bang and a blinding flash occurred directly where the two remaining terrorists were hiding. The three counterterrorist specialists took their hands off of their ears and rose to point their weapons at the now-subdued men, who were clearly stumbling around and stunned from the flashbang.

Eagle glanced over at Bear and Fox. "All right, let's move up!" he ordered.

Both men acknowledged the command and formed up with their leader to begin making their way over to the two armed men still left, exchanging now-empty magazines for new full ones. The trio was about thirty feet or so away from the assailants when more shots were sent flying in their direction. All three got into a half-crouch, half-run whilst returning fire with their own weapons, getting down close to the sides of the cubicles for at least some minimal cover.

"Snake, we could really use some support here!" Eagle yelled half-sarcastically into his mic.

* * *

Snake just sighed. "And here I thought you three would be all right without me. Oh, well; more for me, I suppose."

Lining up his next target, Snake trained his scope on the midsection of a man moving back and forth between the south cubicles. "I see you," he smirked. Squeezing the trigger, he wasn't surprised to see the man that the shot had hit collapse to the floor after being sent flying back from the force, his own blood splattered across the wall behind him.

"Dumb bastard..." he muttered before speaking clearly into the mic. "All right, Eagle, he's down. Just one more left, if I'm not mistaken."

Eagle sighed in relief on the other side of the mic. "Thanks, man."

Snake smiled. "The pleasure is all mine."

* * *

When his last teammate had fallen, the remaining terrorist began to panic. Hiding behind one of the cubicles, he frantically looked from side to side for something, _anything _that could be used to give him an edge over the men still shooting at him while changing magazines. "Fuck, fuck, _fuck_!" he swore under his breath.

He was just about ready to blindly fire his weapon over the cubicle when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Looking directly at it, he recognized the form of the same woman he'd antagonized less than five minutes ago. She was crouching down in the cubicle directly adjacent to his own in much the same position she'd been in earlier.

A small grin found its way to his face. Yes, he could definitely use this to his advantage. Quickly formulating a plan in his head, he sprang up and blindly fired a string of bullets at his aggressors, the idea behind the maneuver being more so to force them to get down rather than actually killing them. Sprinting across to the adjacent cubicle, he grabbed the woman around the neck and positioned her in front of his body so she was now a human shield.

She immediately began screaming and pleading for her life, begging him not to kill her and to just let her go. "Shut the fuck up, bitch!" was his very loud and clear reply to her as he aimed his Uzi over her shoulder in the direction of the three men chasing him through the office. Glancing over his shoulder, he was relieved to see a conference room some twenty feet away behind him with the doors wide open. He continued to back up, pulling Keiko back with him.

"P-Please!" she cried. "Let me go! Please, I didn't do anything!"

"Didn't I tell you to shut the _fuck _up?!" the man sneered, continuously looking in front of him and behind him as the three men got up from their positions.

* * *

The moment Eagle saw what was going on in front of him, he swore and glanced over his shoulder back at Bear and Fox. "He's got a hostage," he stated before returning his gaze to the man and woman before him.

"What do you wanna do, Eagle?" Bear asked of his opinion as he moved up with him, guns trained on the man and his human shield.

"Shit, I don't know," Eagle bit out before calling over his mic. "Snake, are you seeing this?"

"Negative, Eagle," was the almost immediate response. "I have no visual contact of your current situation. With the angle I'm at right now, you're in my blind spot."

Eagle swore again. "Is there any way you could move positions and get a better visual on us?"

"I could, Eagle, but I would have to call the helo back to me, wait for it to pick me up, find a suitable position on another rooftop with a clearer visual, have the pilot drop me off, and then set up my rifle and find the target you want me to hit before I can even take the shot. From what I understand of the little I know about your situation at this moment, that would take much too long. However, if you still want me to do it..."

Eagle sighed into the mic. "No, Snake, you're right; that's gonna take time that we don't have. All right, well just keep overwatch and let us know if you see anything else."

"Copy that, Eagle," Snake replied. "Good luck down there."

"Thanks, Snake," Eagle responded, softly sighing as he focused on the black clad man holding an Uzi on the woman in his arms.

What the hell could he do? He could try to shoot the guy, but if he missed, he could end up injuring or even killing the woman he was trying to save. Snake was out of visual range to do anything and even if he moved positions, it would take too damn long. Fox and Bear were in the same boat as himself, so-

A soft voice to his right interrupted his thoughts. "Might I make a suggestion, Eagle?"

Eagle looked to the side at his red haired teammate, who was speaking to him without looking at him. "Go ahead, Fox."

"Wait until he gets backed up into a corner," Fox suggested. "At that point, he won't have anywhere else to go and he'll be out of all possible options. He will likely panic and make a mistake; a mistake that we can use to our advantage."

Eagle's brown eyes widened and he returned his gaze to the man and woman still backing up towards the conference room behind them. He couldn't help but smile under his balaclava. "No wonder I always let you plan the missions out ahead of time, Fox."

"Thank you, Eagle."

* * *

The man with the gun to the young woman's head continuously backed up, threatening to blow her head off with his weapon every so often. He passed through the open glass doors of the conference room, noticing that he was getting close to a large glass window behind him. _Fuck! _he thought, growling inwardly.

Looked like he had nowhere else to go...

Soon, he found himself with his back just inches away from that same window, the woman cowering and pleading for her life in his arms. She was really starting to get on his nerves, but if he wasted her then these three guys would have nothing but a clear target in front of them to mow down with those MP5's of theirs.

* * *

Eagle, Bear and Fox halted when they were a little less than ten feet away from the man and woman, barrels of their weapons still trained on the man before them.

"Drop the weapon now," Eagle ordered softly but also strongly to the man holding said weapon.

"Fuck you!" was the response he got, though he'd pretty much been expecting something like that to come from the other man's mouth.

"I don't think you realize the situation you're in right now," Eagle added. "Let me explain. You're up against a window in a room at one of the four farthest corners on the thirty-first floor of this building, you don't seem to be a very good shot with that Uzi of yours, you've got three highly trained counterterrorist specialists less than teen feet away from you each aiming the barrel of an automatic weapon right at your head, and you have just one hostage at gunpoint. Face it, pal; you're finished. Just drop the gun, let the hostage go and I promise that we'll take you in without any further injury."

"How 'bout you take all those threats and shove 'em right up your ass!"

Eagle waited a moment before speaking once more. "I'm giving you your second-to-last chance to release the hostage. Believe me, you're not gonna like the very last one I have for you."

"Go fuck yourself, asshole! You don't scare me!"

As if to prove his point, the man suddenly turned the gun over his shoulder and back to the window before firing a short burst at it. The glass was shattered to pieces instantly and the woman screamed out whilst covering her ears as some small shards of it rained down on her. She was more concerned with the fact that the man holding her against him was firing his gun once again at all, not to mention the fact that he'd just destroyed the only remaining barrier separating her from a 310-foot fall to the pavement on the city streets of Tokyo far below her.

The three men were slightly stunned by this spectacle, but they quickly pushed it away and remained calm and focused on the situation at hand before them. They all still had their submachine guns aimed at the terrorist but one of them began to slowly lower his in favor of slinging it behind his back and reaching for his sidearm instead.

Bear was somewhat shocked when he saw Eagle do this out of the corner of his eye. "Eagle, what the hell are you doing?" he whispered harshly to the other man, who simply ignored him.

Eagle withdrew the SIG Sauer P226 semi-automatic pistol from the holster strapped to his outer thigh, bringing it up to put the man's black clad head in between the sights. Thumbing the safety switch off, he said, "Okay, remember that 'last chance' I just mentioned and how you weren't going to like it? Well, this is it. I don't like to brag, but I happen to be a very good shot with a handgun; _far _better than with an MP5 like the one now behind my back. What this means for you is that I've just increased the chances of me being able to kill you in one single shot without hitting the woman you're using as a human shield right in front of you."

The man's eyes momentarily widened before hardening with pure malice as he held the woman closer to him, enjoying how she whimpered in fear. "You're bluffing," he said.

Eagle raised an eyebrow. "You bet your life on that, pal?"

The terrorist just laughed. "Sure, I like a challenge with some high stakes!"

Eagle sighed and shook his head. _This guy's a complete fucking idiot! _he thought to himself. _Seriously, did he even _try _to plan a way to escape?!_

Still though, that wouldn't stop him from putting a bullet right through that obscured head of his. As long as he was able to save the woman's life and get her away from the guy in one piece, he was prepared to do whatever it took to make it happen.

"All right," Eagle said, "well if that's the way you want it then that's how it's gonna be. This is your very last chance to release the hostage, put your weapon down, and surrender. I'm going to slowly count from one to three; when I get to three, I shoot you. During that time, I'll give you every second to rethink your decision until I get to that number."

The man suddenly lost the smug looking grin on his face. "Wh-What? The fuck you say?"

Eagle paid him no mind, however. "One," he began.

Bear incredulously glanced sideways at his team leader and friend. "Uh... Eagle? You're not... _serious_ about this, are you?"

"Bear," a soft voice on the opposite side called for his attention, "just let him do it. He knows what he's doing."

"Yeah, but-!" Bear began.

"_Bear_," Fox said the call sign again, this time saying it much more harshly and now looking the other man directly in the eye. "Allow Eagle to do as he wishes. He isn't our team leader for nothing, you know."

Bear just swallowed hard at that, keeping his gun trained on the man with the Uzi. He briefly gave Eagle a quick sideways glance before returning his vision to the last terrorist. _God, I hope to hell that you know what you're doing, man..._

"Two," Eagle said.

The man began to visibly panic, hand shaking around the grip of the gun in his hand. "I-I'll do it, man!" he warned. "I'll fuckin' do it! I'll... I'll blow this bitch's head off right now, I swear to fuckin' God!"

Eagle sucked in a breath before slowly exhaling, getting down into a running stance low to the floor. The man's head was still in his sights and he closed one eye to improve his accuracy, aiming directly for the middle of his forehead. _This is it, _he thought. _No turning back now._

Waiting just a moment more, he announced, "Three." The very moment that the last letter of that word left his mouth, his finger had squeezed the trigger of his P226 to release the bullet in the chamber. The man on the receiving end of it didn't even have a chance to cry out before it struck him square in the forehead, head snapping back from the force of the shot.

Eagle was already sprinting for the woman who was still in the dead man's grasp, dropping his gun along the way so he would have both hands free to grab her. He got about halfway to them when the man's body tilted backwards and began to fall out of the shot out window. The brown haired woman screamed as the man's weight dragged her out and down with him, reaching her hands out to desperately grab at anything she could reach to prevent her from falling more than three hundred feet to certain death.

Eagle swore under his breath. _Shit, I'm not gonna make it!_

But still he ran, not giving up on saving this woman's life. He had killed the man who was threatening to do the same to her just moments ago, so it was only right that he should also be the same one to prevent her from plummeting out of this window. He slid the last foot away from the woman on the carpet and reached for her hand as he steadied himself on the window's edge, bracing his feet solidly on the floor.

The woman just happened to see this happening and reached for the gloved hand, almost crying out in relief when both of them made contact as she fell. As soon as Eagle felt their hands connect, he gripped the smaller female one as tight as he could, determined to not let her fall.

However, what he hadn't anticipated was the sheer weight he would be taking hold of. Both the man and woman's weight combined was somewhere around three hundred pounds, and strong as he was, Eagle couldn't manage to successfully arrest the woman's fall without actually falling over himself. The simple laws of physics took effect and he was pulled over the window's edge almost immediately.

He gasped in midair, eyes widening when he realized what was about to actually happen. "Oh, _shit_!" he exclaimed as he was thrown headfirst into a 310-foot fall out of the building. "Fuck _this_!"

But he wasn't about to go down without a fight, so as he was in the middle of the involuntary frontflip that the fall had sent him into, he reached a hand out and above him to try and grab onto the edge of the window. He knew he'd taken a hold of it when the arm belonging to that same hand was sharply jerked upwards. He screamed out in pain as his muscles were tested to their very limits, gritting his teeth against the white hot sensations coursing through the limb.

"God_damn_!" he grunted out before feeling the weight below him suddenly lessen. _What in the hell-?!_

He looked down just in time to see the body of the terrorist beginning its descent to the ground. Confused, he leaned back ever so slightly and saw a large dent in the window just one floor below, cracks appearing across the glass. It didn't take him too long to figure out what must have occurred.

When he'd grabbed onto the edge, he'd swung back toward the building in the process. The dead man still had the woman in his grasp as this happened, but his body had hit a window of the thirtieth floor and the sheer speed and force of the impact had shaken the arm off that had previously been wrapped around the woman's neck. Along with the fact that he no longer had anything to hold onto, there was nothing stopping him from falling thirty stories down to the ground below.

"Holy shit!" Eagle whispered in amazement.

He was brought back to reality when he felt his gloved hand begin to slip on the metal of the window's edge, bits of glass crunching under it as he struggled to find a grip to hold on. "Fuck, fuck, _fuck_!"

Right before he felt that he was about to lose his grip, his wrist was grasped by a large hand belonging only to Bear. Another hand clasped around the first one already around his wrist as the taller man held on tight.

"Ah, _shit_!" he swore as he tried to adjust the weight in both of his hands.

He felt arms wrap tightly around his waist and pull back to keep him from falling. He glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. "Damn, Fox, if you wanted to cop a feel then why didn't ya just ask me?"

Fox rolled his eyes. "Typical you, Bear."

Eagle gritted his teeth against the strain of his muscles as he looked down at the woman clinging to his hand. She was hyperventilating and trying not to scream. He had to give her at least _some _credit for that; hell, most women - and even most _men_, more than likely - would have probably pissed their pants by now in a situation such as this.

"H-Hey, what's your name?" he yelled over the wind blowing through the open air.

The woman's terrified eyes met his own. "K-Keiko!" she yelled back. "Keiko Y-Yukimura!"

"Okay, Keiko!" he nodded. "Here's what we're gonna do: we're gonna slowly pull you back up into the building, all right? I'm gonna need your full cooperation if you want it to work, though!"

It only took her but a moment to process this information. "O-Okay! I'll do whatever you say! Just... pl-please, help me!"

"All right! Don't worry, Keiko; we're gonna get you back up there!" Eagle then glanced up at his two teammates. "Okay guys, let's do this!"

"Affirmative!" both men replied before grunting with obvious effort as they pulled up while slowly moving back.

Eagle winced and bit his lip when his arm was pulled in a certain way that made it feel as if it were about to pop right out of its socket. "Fuck, that hurts..." he grunted under his breath.

When they were about halfway up, Eagle looked back down at Keiko to check up on her. "How you doing down there, Keiko? Still holding up?"

She nodded. "Y-Yeah, but I'm not sure how much l-longer I can hold on for! Please, hurry!"

"Okay, okay, we'll get you up!" he tried to soothe her. "Just try to stay calm, okay?"

She nodded once more and tried not to look down as the three men helped pull her up. Inch by inch, they gradually got closer and closer to their goal. Keiko didn't want to think about slipping out of the man's grasp and falling to her death, but it was very hard _not_ to when that possibility was all too real of happening right now.

Eagle was just starting to pull himself up and into the building when he felt the smaller hand in his own begin to slide out. Gasping, he whipped his head around and looked down at the woman.

"I... I can't hold on much longer!" she cried.

"Hold on, Keiko, hold on! Guys, we need to hurry it up!"

"We're goin' as fast as we _can _here, Eagle!" Bear responded through a grunt.

"Shit!" Eagle swore. "Keiko, just hold on, all right? We're almost there!"

She shook her head, tears starting to brim in her eyes with the realization that she was about to die. "I can't!" she exclaimed. "I... I'm about to fall!"

At that moment, Eagle knew what had to be done: he had just _one _chance to save this woman's life, and if he blew it, then she would end up pancaked on the street some three hundred feet below because of him. Mentally apologizing to Keiko for what he was about to do, he mustered all the strength in his arm that he could and yanked her up. Not pausing in the action for even a moment, he pushed forward as hard as he could and threw her right back into the building.

She fell hard onto the carpeted floor, momentarily stunned but still alive. Eagle breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he saw her land; at least she was alive. Now with a much lighter load to work with, it only took Fox and Bear a few more moments to haul Eagle up and into the conference room. He fell to the floor with a groan of pain, flexing his right arm as he sat up.

"Ah, _fuck_! Shit man, but does that hurt like a _bitch_!"

Panting in exertion, Fox knelt down beside him and gently took hold of the arm. "Let me see it, Eagle."

Eagle allowed his arm to be taken into the hands of one of the two redheads on his team while the other was doubled over, trying to catch his breath. "Hmm..." he hummed aloud in thought. "It's probably not broken, but it could very well either be dislocated or sprained."

Eagle sighed heavily into his balaclava and rolled his dark brown eyes. "Oh, that's just fucking _fantastic_," he quipped sarcastically. "Just what I need right now: a damn sprained arm. And to think of all the fuckin' _paperwork _we're gonna have to do after this shit!" he exclaimed, gesturing to the entire office around him.

Fox just chuckled, releasing Eagle's arm as he stood up and offered a hand out to help him up. "Hope you can write with your left hand, then."

Eagle rolled his eyes once more and sighed heavily but took the hand anyway, thanking Fox as he slowly rose to his feet.

"Aw, quit your bitchin'!" Bear's deep voice made its presence known. "What was that, the _second _time I saved your scrawny ass today? Some team leader you are..."

Eagle narrowed his brown eyes and was about to make a rather snarky comeback when a sudden weight crashed into his side, briefly knocking the wind out of him. He was thrown off balance and nearly fell to the floor as he looked down to see Keiko clinging to him, arms wrapped tightly around his slim waist and burying her face into his side.

"Th-Thank you!" she sobbed. "Thank you so much! Thank you, thank you...!"

Eagle was thankful that his balaclava obscured most of his face, otherwise the slight blush on it would have been quite obvious to everyone else. Unsure of exactly what to do in a situation such as this, he put an arm around her waist and soothingly ran a gloved hand through her hair.

"Hey, uh..." he coughed nervously, "...n-no pr-problem. Just doing my job, that's all. No need to thank me."

But Keiko shook her head, looking up into his eyes with her own watery ones. "N-No, I _mean _it!" she insisted. "Really, th-thank you! I can never repay you for what you did..."

The blush on Eagle's face grew and he felt like it would burn right through his mask if it got any worse. Desperately looking to his two nearby teammates for help, they simply smiled and shrugged as they collected themselves and walked back into the main office to check on the rest of the hostages, bits of glass crunching under their feet as they left.

Eagle narrowed his eyes in annoyance. _Gee, thanks a _lot_, guys..._

He just stood awkwardly by the now-open window and tried to soothe the crying woman in his arms as best as he could, having absolutely no experience with this sort of thing in the slightest. Of course she would pick _him _of all people to bestow her thanks upon! He just shook his head and sighed. Sometimes, he really just felt like the whole damn world was out to get him.

* * *

**Ah yes, I definitely had some fun with those call signs of theirs, ha ha ha. Did you figure out who was who by the end? If not, don't worry; their identities will all be revealed in the next chapter so no need to fret.**

**And by the way, the term "Tango" does not, as you may think, stem from **_**Call of Duty's Modern Warfare**_** series or anything like that. I used this to identify terrorists in general because "Tango" comes from the letter "T" in the military phonetic alphabet, and since the word "terrorist" also starts with a "T," this just makes things much simpler when it comes to communications within the team. This term will pretty much come up throughout the story anytime a terrorist is identified by those within Counter Force so don't expect it to go away any time soon.**


	2. Doctor's Orders

**Chapter 2 - Doctor's Orders**

"_MMPH, FUCK_!" a man screamed through the gauze roll in his mouth as the doctor he was in the same room with relocated his shoulder, feeling as if his fingers would actually rip through the cot he was sitting on if they dug into the material any harder. He tried to ignore the loud, sickening popping sound that resounded through the small room as his humerus and socket were reconnected, but it was very hard _not _to when it was currently the only thing he could think about.

Doctor Jacob Shelton winced as he tenderly checked the injured shoulder with gloved hands, making sure not to touch it any harder than he needed to. "I apologize, Yūsuke, but this is the only way to get your shoulder back to where it needs to be..."

Yūsuke sighed heavily into the roll still in his mouth, opening his eyes ever so slightly through the blinding pain coursing through his entire right arm. "Yeah, I know, I know..." he muffled out.

"You're actually quite lucky you didn't tear anything in your right arm, let alone break any _bones_ at all," the other man commented as he felt around the area a bit more. "How you managed to get away with just a dislocated shoulder and a sprained arm, I'll never know."

Yūsuke just rolled his eyes as he removed the gauze roll from his mouth, sticking his tongue out at the odd taste now in it. Wiping his mouth off with the back of his hand, he sarcastically muttered, "Guess I'm just a friggin' medical mystery, doc," before setting the roll on the cot beside him. He was somewhat amused at the sight of teeth marks now indented into the material from when he'd bitten into it to muffle his pained scream only moments ago.

Doctor Shelton chuckled at that, shaking his head before releasing the arm and turning around to look for a sling and a new roll of gauze.

"Honestly, you really _must _be, Yūsuke," he commented as he rifled through a cabinet. "You walked away from that twenty-foot fall back in basic rope training with just a twisted ankle, you somehow managed to stay underwater for a whole _four minutes _without drowning after you were blown off the port side of that oil tanker and weighed down by your gear during that crisis off the coast of Somalia four years ago, there was that knife wound you took just two inches away from your heart on that mission in Germany during that _same year_, and now _this_. Really, Yūsuke, if I didn't know any better I would say that you had pure adamantium running through your veins!"

Yūsuke raised his eyebrow at the last bit. "'Ada'-_what_?" he asked while pulling his plain white short sleeved T-shirt over his head, grunting in pain as the movement required from his right arm in order to actually do so caused him further pain.

Doctor Shelton put on an offended air when he turned around to walk back to Yusuke with the sling in one hand and gauze in another. "You never read any _X-Men _comics as a child, Yūsuke? Honestly, I'm quite disappointed. You always struck me as that kind of lad growing up..."

"What, you mean a kid who read comic books?" Yūsuke asked as he lifted his right arm straight out to allow Doctor Shelton to begin wrapping it in the gauze before shaking his head. "Nah, I never really got into all that pop culture stuff. I always just used to think that that sort of thing was kinda nerdy. I was more of the 'skip-school-and-get-into-fights-with-other-kids-my-age' type of kid. It was more fun for me to get into actual fights with _real_ people than just looking at pretend ones on paper."

Shelton momentarily paused after finishing the wrap and gave Yūsuke a slightly perturbed look. "You... _enjoyed _getting into fistfights with other boys, Yūsuke?"

Yūsuke chuckled.

"I know, kinda sick, right? I only got picked on just one time my whole life in school. First day of kindergarten, I was on the playground sitting off to the side by myself just eating the lunch my mom packed me that day. Some kid who was bigger than me told me to hand it over because he 'ruled the schoolyard' or something like that... I don't really remember. Anyway, I told him to leave me alone and he shoved me down to the ground, and after that I remember seeing red, tackling his little ass, pinning him to the ground and... well, I just kept punching him in the face until my teacher came over and pulled me off of him. Little bastard had it coming to him, but I probably should've stopped after the very first time I hit him because apparently that little right hook of mine broke his jaw. He ended up going to the hospital for the broken jaw I gave him, along with a couple dozen stitches he needed and some missing teeth.

"Needless to say, no one else bothered me after that little incident, but that also went the other way around in the sense that everyone else was too afraid of me to want to even get to know me. I was known as the _new_ bully of the playground at school, even though I never actually bullied anyone. Hell, I even _helped _some other kids who often got bullied by the troublemakers; all I had to do was just walk up to the kids being assholes, tell them to leave the poor kid alone they were fucking with and they'd scram immediately. The kids I'd helped thanked me and all, but none of them ever really went near me afterward; guess they were afraid I'd see them as weak and take the kids' places that'd been screwing with them instead to be their new menace.

"Anyway, I started getting into constant fights with kids when I got to elementary school after my reputation as being the toughest kid in town started to grow, and middle school was only worse. Kuwabara was my main rival by the time I got to Sarayashiki Junior High. I got into something like... I don't know, 150 fights with him in total and I beat the living shit out of him every time. He never even managed to land a single blow."

Yūsuke chuckled and shook his head, glancing back up at Doctor Shelton. "Honestly, I have no idea how my mom put up with all of that bullshit back then. I probably wouldn't have been surprised if she just ended up dumping my unruly ass off at some orphanage because I was too much of a handful for her to take care of."

Shelton just swallowed somewhat nervously and gingerly began putting the sling on Yūsuke's arm. "Well, your childhood certainly seems to have been much more exciting than mine. The most fun I ever had as a child was being up in my room by myself most of the time just reading."

Yūsuke's eyes widened. "_Reading_?" he asked incredulously. "Really?"

Shelton nodded with a laugh. "Yes, I was pretty much the British equivalent of whatever a geek would be considered to be here in Japan. I read anything I could get my hands on, really; science magazines, medical books, fiction novels, comic books, old newspapers, you name it. If it was made of paper and consisted of multiple pages bound together in some way or another, I'd go for it almost immediately."

"But... didn't you have any _friends_?"

"Some," the doctor shrugged. "Most of them left when they found out I was gay, though, and the few who stuck around after that didn't talk to me very much, so I ended up finding solitude in my bedroom with my bookshelf."

"Well, hey," Yūsuke shrugged, "better to have no friends at all than being stuck with a bunch of assholes who can't accept you for who you are."

Shelton nodded, stepping away from his patient as he finished situating the sling. "Amen to that. All right then, Yūsuke, I'd say you're good to go. Just try not to move the arm or shoulder around too much and you should be good. Also, try to keep ice on both areas for twenty minutes at a time as often as you're able to; it'll keep the swelling down and bruising to a minimum."

Yūsuke nodded as he hopped down and off of the cot. "So uh, how long do I have to keep this thing on for, anyway?" he pointed to the sling around his injured arm.

Shelton shrugged and adjusted the pair of prescription eyeglasses on the bridge of his nose. "That depends on how fast your body heals, but if I had to give you a rough estimate, I'd say somewhere around... oh, two to three weeks, tops."

Yūsuke's jaw dropped. "_T-Two to three weeks_?! You've gotta be fuckin' _kidding_ me!"

"No, I assure you that I am _not _kidding you, Yūsuke," the blonde doctor gave the other man a serious look, crossing his arms over his chest. "Unless you want to risk dislocating your shoulder _again _or cause serious tissue damage to that arm of yours, you _will _wear that sling I've given to you along with the gauze wrap around the sprain. During that time, I also want you to keep any and all physical activity down to a bare minimum, which includes field exercises and actual missions."

Yūsuke's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull. "Are you _shittin' _me right now?!" he exclaimed loudly. "Jake, that's my fuckin' _job_, man! How the hell can I help the people I've been trained to when I'm sittin' on my ass back here at HQ?!"

"By doing the less glamorous work the rest of us have to when you field operatives are out and about," Shelton defended. "Like it or not, Yūsuke, field work is only half of the job here. Yes, the paperwork is hell and I know how much you hate being stuck behind a desk, but you need rest and recuperation if you want that arm to heal. You can't very well be effective out in the field with only one arm."

Yūsuke shook his head, ready to argue. "B-But, I can still-!" he stubbornly began.

"_No_," the doctor cut him off. "I don't want to hear any further complaints about it. You're not winning this argument, Yūsuke, no matter how hard you try. You can still come into work here in the office if you like, but if you even step _foot _out into the field before I personally verify that that arm is fully healed then I _will _have you suspended from duty until I see fit. Your choice."

Yūsuke gaped before narrowing his eyes in defiance. "You wouldn't," he challenged.

Doctor Shelton smirked coyly at that. "Wouldn't I? You may be the leader of your team out in the field, Yūsuke, but as of right now you are _my _patient on strict medical watch under _my_ supervision back _here _at base. If you still want to fight this, then go have a word with Koenma about it; I'm sure he'd be _delighted _to discuss it with you."

Yūsuke blanched at that. "N-No way!" he sputtered rapidly. "Shit, he'd probably assign me a 24/7 escort around the office to watch over me while I take a piss in the men's room, for Christ's sake!"

Shelton laughed, knowing he'd successfully backed the other man into the figurative corner. "Well, I'd say that that drastically limits your options now, wouldn't you?"

Yūsuke scowled at him before shoving his good hand deep into the left front pocket of his jeans. He looked away and pouted at the wall in a very childlike way, growling and muttering curses under his breath. "This fucking _blows_..."

Shelton patiently waited for the other man to respond, giving him time to act like an adult once more. After a few more moments, Yūsuke finally let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes, shaking his head. "All right, doc," he slowly looked over at the other man. "You win."

Shelton smiled. "I'm glad you see it my way, Yūsuke."

Yūsuke scoffed. "Do I really have any other choice?"

Shelton considered that for a moment. "Now that you mention it, no, not really," the doctor shrugged.

Yūsuke shook his head sadly. "You're _killin' _me here, Jake," he muttered, gazing down at the floor in a defeated manner.

Shelton sighed as well, sympathizing with Yūsuke if only because of his current disposition. He knew how much he loved being out in the field and doing what he did, seeing as how he'd graduated from his combat training class at the very top. Ever since the day he'd been permitted to go out with other CF operatives on actual missions and had been given command of his own team, he'd only flourished and had quickly proven to be one of the most effective men in the entire organization.

The blonde walked over to the other man, putting a comforting hand on his good shoulder. "Look, Yūsuke," his expression softened as the other man slowly looked up, "I know how much you probably hate this right now. You're the best damn operative I've ever met, and I don't just say that lightly. You're a model team leader, you're one of the best shooters we have and nothing short of a pure _god _with any kind of handgun out there, you're in perfect physical and mental condition for your age, you're a brilliant combat strategist, and you're an all-around great guy. The lads still in training look up to you as some sort of _deity_, for God's sake! You're a _legend_, Yūsuke, and you're only twenty-five!"

Shelton's expression then hardened ever so slightly. "But even _legends_ get hurt and need to take some time off. You may be one of the best men here, but like it or not, you're still imperfect and human. Yūsuke, as a medical professional and as your _friend_, I'm only looking out for your very best interests. You know that I take care of all my patients and I care for my friends even _more_, so I'm only being a pain in the ass so you won't end up doing something you'll regret later on."

Yūsuke sighed and nodded. "I know, Jake, but I just feel so... _useless _here. It just doesn't seem right; my guys are gonna be out there in the middle of the shit while I'm here in an office waiting for them to come back. I mean, who's gonna fill in for team leader? I'd trust Kuwabara with it, if only Hiei would actually listen to him. Kurama's not bad, but he's a lot better with coming up with plans and following commands than actually making them out in the field. And Hiei... well, shit, Hiei would probably call in fucking helicopter _gun patterns _on whoever's shooting at him just for the _hell_ of it since he'd have the authority to actually _do_ it at that point."

"Oh, come now; he can't be _that _bad," Shelton vouched for the man they were speaking of. "Give the man _some _credit, Yūsuke. He's one of the best marksmen we have and he's highly effective out there."

Yūsuke raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but trust me doc, you _don't_ want him in charge of a team. I'd be more concerned about innocent bystanders and hostages getting hurt rather than himself or anyone else on the actual team he's with. He just... it just wouldn't work out, Jake."

"That reminds me, Yūsuke; you still haven't told me that story you said you were going to. You know, the one about..." Shelton paused, looking around as if making sure no one else was nearby even though it was obviously just him and Yūsuke behind a closed door in a small medical room. Still, he leaned in and lowered his voice. "...about _Hiei_."

Yūsuke grimaced ever so slightly. "Yeah, sorry about that; it keeps slipping my mind for some reason. Um... okay, how about this: why don't we go out tomorrow night somewhere and talk about it over a couple of beers?"

Shelton thought about it for a moment before shrugging and giving the other man a small smile. "I don't usually drink, but I suppose I can make an exception this time."

Yūsuke smiled back. "Okay, sounds good. I'll find a place somewhere downtown in Tokyo and call you with an address and time later on tonight."

"All right, it's a date then," Shelton commented with a small nod.

Yūsuke chuckled at that. "Don't get any ideas there, Jake. Let's try to keep our relationship strictly on a 'friends-at-work' basis, shall we? Besides, don't you already _have _a boyfriend?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I can't at least _look_, right? I believe the Americans call it... oh, what's the term? Ah yes, 'rubbernecking.'"

Yūsuke burst into hysterical laughter. "Oh my God, Jake..." he just shook his head as he headed for the door. "I think I'm just gonna leave now before this conversation gets any more uncomfortable than it already is. Keep it up and I'm gonna have to report your English ass for on-the-job sexual harassment!" he joked as he reached the door.

Shelton laughed back. "Well, with a handsome, muscular, constant patient such as yourself - one I've seen with his shirt off dozens of times and down to nothing but his boxers at least five or six, might I add - wouldn't it only be natural for a man such as myself to take a peek at least _once_?"

Yūsuke stopped and turned to give the other man a slightly disturbed expression, not quite knowing whether or not he was actually joking. He just gave him a small, somewhat nervous smile and left the room.

Shelton began to laugh at Yūsuke's reaction before suddenly remembering something. He gasped and smacked his forehead. "Oh, bugger!" he exclaimed right before running out of the room. He briefly scanned the hallway for the other man and it only took him a few seconds to pick out that particular black head of hair. "Yūsuke!" he shouted.

The field operator paused and turned around at the sound of his voice being called, seeing Jake waving to him from the doorway of the medical room. "Yeah, what's up, man?" he asked, starting to walk back to him.

Jake held a finger up. "Wait there for just a moment; I forgot to give you something!"

Yūsuke just nodded and patiently waited in place as Doctor Shelton ducked back into the room to procure whatever it was he forgot to give him. Less than a minute later, the blonde man walked out of the room and down the hall with both hands holding something separately. Yūsuke saw what they were as the doctor drew closer and stopped in front of him, looking up at him curiously.

"Those are... for me, I assume?" he questioned.

Shelton nodded and held both hands out, placing an ice pack in one of Yūsuke's hands and a bottle of painkillers in the other. "I already told you how often to use the ice pack but the pills will help with the pain as well. _Please _try to use them when they're needed."

Yūsuke snorted. "Oh please, Jake; do I look like some kind of addict to you?" he half-joked.

Shelton shook his head. "It's not you _misusing_ them that concerns me; I don't foresee that even being a possible issue with you. I'm worried about you not even taking them at _all_. You _did _refuse any kind of anesthetic, numbing agent or dosage of morphine I offered several times just minutes ago when I did the closed reduction on your dislocated shoulder, after all, even though I _clearly _stated that it would be very painful when I did it."

"Well, I didn't know it would feel like getting _shot_ in the damn _shoulder_, Jake!" Yūsuke defended. "Christ, when's the last time someone did a closed reduction on _you_, huh?!"

Shelton sighed and rolled his eyes before chuckling. "It doesn't make you any less 'manly' to accept medication, you know. In fact, Yūsuke, that would have been the _smart _thing to do, but knowing how much of a stubborn bastard you can be..." he trailed off, Yusuke having heard this kind of lecture before.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it," he waved it off. "Are we all settled now or was there something else you wanted, Doctor Feelgood?"

Doctor Shelton feigned hurt. "Ouch, Yūsuke, that _hurt_."

Yūsuke then gave the other man a small, genuine smile. "Really though, Jake, thanks for the help. I'll return the ice pack and whatever's left of the meds when I'm done with 'em."

Jake just waved it off nonchalantly. "Honestly, Yūsuke, it's the very least I could do. And don't worry about the supplies; I've got more here than I can count."

The smile dropped from Yūsuke's face. "B-But this is CF property," he directed to the objects in his hands. "Don't you guys have to keep tabs on this stuff?"

Doctor Shelton nodded. "You're absolutely right, Yūsuke; it _is _CF property and it _is _my personal responsibility to make sure everything is accounted for. The thing is, though, sometimes things have a habit of becoming... shall we say, _misplaced _and never accounted for because they simply can't be found at all after they disappear. It can be quite a royal pain in the ass when it happens, but..."

He trailed off, hoping Yūsuke would take the hint. At first, the other man didn't get it. He just stared blankly at Doctor Shelton, waiting for him to continue.

_Why's he just standing there giving me that look? _he wondered. _The hell, Jake? If you want to say something to me, then just-!_

And then, the figurative light bulb went off above his head. His eyes momentarily widened in realization. "O-Oh, o-okay," he slowly nodded with an understanding smile. "Y-Yeah, all right, I get what you're sayin' to me. Yeah, damn shame that that sort of thing happens. Perfectly good supplies just disappearin' for no apparent reason at all..."

Jake nodded back. "Yes, it's quite a travesty. Now, um..." He just motioned down the hall with his hand in a "go-somewhere-else-and-act-inconspicuous-before-someone-notices-something's-off-with-you" sort of look.

This, Yūsuke understood almost immediately. Winking and giving the blonde a thumbs up, he just walked down the hall in the other direction. "Thanks, Jake!" he genuinely - and rather loudly - thanked the other man with a wave as he continued walking.

Doctor Shelton sighed and rolled his eyes in utter exasperation, but returned the gesture nonetheless. "No problem, Yūsuke!" he replied just as loudly before beginning the walk back to his office. He chuckled to himself and shook his head to no one in particular. While brilliant at strategizing and planning when it came to missions out in the field, Yūsuke could be quite... _lacking _in the common sense department sometimes.

_Oh yes, I'm most _certainly _going to have both hands full with him, _he thought humorously about his patient as he opened the door to his office before closing it behind him.

* * *

As soon as Yūsuke rounded the corner down the hall, he sighed heavily in annoyance and leaned up against the wall just around the bend, bringing the objects in his hands up to his face and staring right through them. _Fuck the both of you little shits._

Much as he hated them, though, he knew they would do nothing but help him heal faster. The ice pack would bring the swelling down so his shoulder wouldn't blow up like a goddamn balloon at a kid's birthday party and, even though he wouldn't have admitted it out loud, his entire right arm hurt like a fucking _bitch _so the painkillers would make the pain at least _bearable_.

He drew in a breath and leaned his head back against the wall, ignoring the few people who had to step over or around him to get to where they needed to go and gave him dirty looks because of this little "inconvenience." Fuck them all; they could find another way around. At least _they _all had perfectly good arms...

"Hey, Urameshi!" he suddenly felt a hand clasp his right shoulder tightly.

He immediately sprang up off the carpet in reaction and howled in pain. "_SON OF A BITCH_!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, clasping his injured shoulder and banging his head off the wall to distract himself from the pain. The bottle of painkillers and ice pack fell to the floor in the process, but at that particular point in time Yusuke could have really cared less. "_AAH, FUCK! GODDAMN IT, KUWABARA_!"

Kuwabara drew back almost immediately, eyes wide in incredulity. What the hell just happened? He'd only touched his arm-

Oh, wait. Ah, _that _was it! He wanted to give himself a kick in the ass as hard as he could for not having noticed it before. Wincing, he quickly apologized. "Oh, shit! S-Sorry, man, I didn't see that sling around your arm there. Seriously! It really hurts that bad, though?"

Yūsuke growled and gave the taller man a dry look. "_You _try having a dislocated shoulder and _then_ ask me how it feels!" he began to point at him with his right hand before remembering he couldn't move it. "_OW_! Fuck, fuck, _fuck_...!"

Kuwabara's face heated up when he saw the entire office looking at the two of them, now entirely silent. Had Yūsuke really screamed _that _loud? When some of them made eye contact with the redhead as he looked at them incredulously, they quickly looked away and resumed doing what they were doing before Yūsuke's outburst. Soon, the entire office was back to the way it had been only moments ago and Kuwabara glanced down at his friend. For some reason, he suddenly found the entire situation to be quite amusing and he couldn't hold back a small laugh.

Yūsuke was able to hear this even through the white hot pain now clouding his vision and looked up at the other man, narrowing his eyes. "What the hell's so damn _funny_?!" he exclaimed, pointing to his injured arm with his good hand. "This thing fucking hurts like _hell_, man!"

Kuwabara, still laughing, shook his head and bent down to retrieve the ice pack and painkillers, handing them to a very pissy looking Yūsuke who promptly ripped them out of the taller man's open hands and stuffed both items into his jeans. Taking his friend by his good arm, Kuwabara began to lead him down one of the hallways. "Come on, man, let's go somewhere else where so many people won't hear us."

Yūsuke sighed but followed along nonetheless, allowing Kuwabara to lead him by the arm until they rounded the bend and he pried himself away, stuffing his left hand down into his pocket as he walked. "Yeah, what is it?" he asked shortly, not bothering to even look up at Kuwabara.

"Damn, touchy, touchy!" Kuwabara chuckled, clearly amused at his friend's condition. "Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?"

Yūsuke scowled up at him. "Go fuck yourself, Kuwabara; you damn well _know_ what's wrong! I've got a dislocated shoulder and a sprained arm! Why the hell else would I be wearing this fucker around my whole damn right arm?! Friggin' jackass..." he mumbled the last bit under his breath.

Kuwabara laughed out loud before sobering. "Dislocated, huh? Sorry to hear that, dude. Doc Shelton already do a closed reduction on that?" he gestured to the other's injured shoulder.

"Yeah, he did," was Yūsuke's simple reply.

Kuwabara thought for a moment. "Didn't he offer you any anesthetic or something before he did it? I thought they're usually supposed to do that..."

Yūsuke sighed. "Yep."

Kuwabara gave him a knowing smirk. "And let me guess; you said no, didn't you?"

"Uh-huh," Yūsuke nodded.

Kuwabara chuckled, shaking his head disapprovingly. "_God_, but are you one stubborn son of a bitch! Seriously, man, when a doctor offers you something to ease the pain before he fixes you up, you take it without a second thought! Or, wait... no, you might not be so stubborn after all. You _could _just be incredibly stupid..."

He was pleased at the rise this evoked from the other male. Yūsuke's face twisted up in a deadly glare before he just gazed straight ahead as he and Kuwabara walked. He was getting quite tired of hearing other people tell him how stubborn he was today.

"Kuwabara," he bit out through his teeth, "I am _not _in the mood for this shit right now. If you've got somethin' to say, then you better fuckin' say it right now because I'm about five seconds away from hitting the person nearest to me. Right now, that very person just happens to be _you_. Do you _really _want a repeat from back when we were still in Sarayashiki together?"

"Oh, come on, man!" Kuwabara spread his arms out with a lopsided grin. "I'm just havin' a bit of fun with ya! What, I'm not allowed to do that anymore?"

Yūsuke sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose before looking up at Kuwabara. "Okay, maybe I'm not making this clear enough for you. Let me dumb it down for ya, because it seems like you're still not quite getting it: Arm. Hurts. Like. A. Motherfucker. Not. In. Mood. For. Screwing. Around. Do. You. Understand. Now?"

Kuwabara laughed again, holding his sides. Yūsuke just growled and kept his gaze straight ahead of him. After a few more moments, Kuwabara finally sobered and spoke once again, but this time in a much more serious manner.

"So, uh, they're interviewin' the witnesses right now to see if they can get any information from 'em about the guys who shot up the Nakamori Building."

Yūsuke nodded, glad his friend was talking about something he actually cared about now. "Yeah, figured as much. How many they get through so far?" he glanced up at his friend.

Kuwabara shrugged. "Half... maybe three-quarters of 'em, I don't really know. I've been kinda busy with other stuff since we got back. You know, after-action reports, inventory checks... tedious crap like that."

Yūsuke groaned at that, suddenly remembering the pile of paperwork he had to do that was more than likely on his desk. "_Fuck_, I forgot I still have to do all that shit..." he complained.

"Hey man, we all gotta do it..."

Yūsuke sighed into his left hand, now covering his face. "Yeah, I _know _that Kuwabara, but now _I've _gotta do that bullshit _every damn day _for the next two or three weeks here! The _last _thing I want to see right now is paperwork..."

Kuwabara quirked a brow. "What do you mean by that?"

Yūsuke sighed heavily. "The good ol' doctor won't let me out of the damn building on any missions or training exercises until _this_ thing," he gestured to the injured arm, "is healed."

"Really, dude?"

"Yeah, man!" Yūsuke exclaimed. "This fucking _sucks_! And he _knows _how much I absolutely hate being stuck behind a desk all day long doing nothing but fuckin' paperwork! I swear, it's like he's purposely tryin' to torture me or something! I love the guy, I really do, but this... this is just _bullshit_."

Kuwabara was silent for a moment before speaking. "Well to be honest, Urameshi, I don't really blame him."

Yusuke groaned, shaking his head in disbelief. "Oh, don't tell me you're taking _his _side on this!"

Kuwabara glanced sideways at his friend meaningfully. "Look man, you fucked up your shooting arm pretty good and... well, let's face it; out in the field, you'd just be useless. You wouldn't be able to shoot, you wouldn't be able to rope down, you wouldn't be able to climb... seriously man, you need to allow time for that thing to heal."

Yūsuke could do nothing but nod at that, not in the slightest mood to argue right now; _much _less with Kuwabara, of all people. However, there was still one issue that needed to be addressed...

"Well, since I'm going to be gone for a while," he quickly changed the subject, "you, Hiei and Kurama won't have a team leader. You're gonna have to find a replacement for me in the meantime."

Kuwabara's eyes widened at that. "Damn, I never even _thought _of that! Yeah, shit... we're gonna need a fourth guy who knows what he's doing to fill in for ya, won't we?" He then glanced sideways at his friend. "Have any ideas, man?"

Yūsuke shook his head. "Not right now, no, but I'll try asking around the office and in some of the other operations teams when I get the time. You should probably try doing the same, along with Kurama and Hiei."

Kuwabara nodded as they made a bend and continued walking. "Yeah, okay; I'll do that. I'll tell them about your extended absence too, since you're probably gonna be swamped with paperwork."

Yūsuke gave him a genuine smile. "Thanks, man. I'd appreciate that." He then grimaced, looking away from his friend before slowly glancing back up at him again. "Um, Kuwabara... you know I have nothing personal against you leading the team, right? I mean, it's not that I don't trust you being in charge or anything, it's just that-"

Kuwabara chuckled, cutting his friend short with a nonchalant wave of the hand. "Dude, it's fine. We already had this discussion a while back, remember? Hell, I wouldn't trust _myself _to be in charge of just one other guy, let alone _three _at a time! Nah man, I'm much better with just followin' orders and shootin' at what I'm told to."

Yūsuke's smile slowly returned. "Yeah," he nodded. "I... I just wanted to make sure you understood my reasoning behind it, that's all."

"Yūsuke, you're my _best friend_ for God's sake," he chuckled. "Of _course _I understand! Long as you think that's what's best for the team, I'm completely fine with it."

Yūsuke released a small, nearly inaudible breath of relief and just nodded. Well, that was a huge amount of stress off his shoulders. At least now he didn't have to worry about-

"Oh shit, I just remembered!" Kuwabara snapped his fingers together, making Yūsuke jump ever so slightly. "There's someone lookin' for ya. One of the witnesses from the Nakamori Building."

Yūsuke stopped walking and furrowed his brow in confusion. "_Me_? Why?"

Kuwabara stopped with him and just shrugged. "I don't know for sure, but I think she said something along the lines of wanting to see the guy who saved her and personally thank him for it. She also said she would like to be interviewed by him. She's still in the interrogation room, actually."

Yūsuke shook his head. "The guy who saved her? What the hell does that mean? Kuwabara, there had to be at least ten to fifteen women in that office when we roped in! How the hell am I supposed to know-?"

Suddenly, Yūsuke gasped, eyes widening. There was only one woman he could think of who fit Kuwabara's description. _Wait... _her_? But... she _already _thanked me back at the building! Why would she want to thank me _again_? Well... shit, maybe it's a different woman..._

Just to be sure, he decided to ask. "Uh... o-okay. Do you, um... do you remember what her name was?"

Kuwabara hummed aloud for a few moments, tapping his chin with a finger in thought. "Yeah, but for some reason I'm drawin' a blank right now. Hmm... what the hell _was _it again...? Oh, yeah! It started with a 'K,' I remember that much. Something like 'Kikyō,' 'Kiki,' 'Chieko,' 'Kiku'...? Nah, none of those seem right..."

Yūsuke's head suddenly snapped up. "Keiko?" he guessed.

Kuwabara's head rapidly bobbed up and down. "Yeah, _that _was it! Keiko! Keiko... uh... shit, what was her last name...?"

It only took Yūsuke a moment to remember the woman's surname. "Yukimura," he said. "Keiko Yukimura."

"Yeah! Hey, how'd you remember that?"

"She was the woman I saved from that last guy who took her at gunpoint and used her as a human shield," Yūsuke explained. "You know, the one who almost fell out of the window when I shot the guy. I asked her for her name while you and Kurama were pulling me and her back up inside. I could never forget a face like hers..."

Kuwabara nodded as the picture began to form in his mind. "Yeah, she _was _kinda cute now that I remember what she looks like..." he mused aloud.

And then, Yūsuke thought of something. "But... wait, if I walked into that room right now and told her that I was the one who rescued her, how would she know it was really _me_? We were wearing balaclavas when we hit the thirty-first floor; the only thing she could've seen would have been my eyes."

"Well... you _did _talk to her, right?" Kuwabara asked, receiving a nod from his friend in confirmation. "Maybe she would recognize you by your _voice _instead when you started interviewing her?"

Yūsuke blinked. "Huh... yeah, guess you're right. I mean, it's not very likely, but maybe she _could_..."

Kuwabara shrugged. "Hey, it's worth a shot. Besides, if that doesn't work then you could try explaining to her why that right arm of yours is all busted up," he directed to the limb.

"Huh?" Yūsuke glanced down at the injured arm before seeing where Kuwabara was going with this. "Ah, okay," he nodded. "Yeah, I see what you're saying. That's only if she actually decides to believe me in the first place, though..."

Kuwabara snorted. "Why _wouldn't _she, man? I don't know, something about her just tells me that she'd be able to pick you out of a line-up almost instantly..."

Yūsuke quirked a brow. "Really? What makes you say that?"

"Ah, I don't know; just a hunch, I guess." Kuwabara then glanced up at an analog clock hanging on the wall near them and saw that it was going on six in the evening. He looked back down at his friend. "Well, I should probably get back to my desk. Still got more paperwork to do and all..." He began walking backwards as he talked. "I'll see ya later man, okay?"

Yūsuke nodded, waving goodbye to the redheaded male as he started walking in the opposite direction. "Yeah, okay. See you around, Kuwabara."

He then turned around and headed off for the interrogation room. He just shook his head in incredulity. _I still don't get it. What the hell could she possibly want to see me for? And why would she want to be interviewed by only me? It just doesn't make any sense..._

He continued to wrack his brain as he rounded the corner and walked straight ahead to the room where he was sure the woman would be waiting for him. Damn, this was turning out to be one _hell_ of an unordinary day.

* * *

**Ehh... don't really have much to say, other than the fact that Doctor Shelton was pretty much made up right on the spot when I began this chapter. I apologize if he seems to be... I don't know, just "off." He really came out of nowhere and I really liked the idea of him as a character, so I decided to throw him into the story. I'm planning some more stuff where he'll be a bit more involved in the main plot line, so this definitely won't be the last you see of him.**

**Oh yeah, and speaking of Doctor Shelton, I mentioned something about Hiei earlier on when he (Doctor Shelton) and Yūsuke were still talking and how Yusuke wouldn't really trust him (Hiei) as the leader for his team. He has his reasons behind this, trust me; reasons concerning Hiei's past and why he joined Counter Force in the first place, specifically. I'm not going to go into any further details about that little bit because it would pretty much completely spoil it for everyone reading this story, but I'm planning on including the "beer session" that Yūsuke and Doctor Shelton agreed on where Yūsuke promised to spill the beans to him about Hiei. That'll probably end up being somewhere around... oh, maybe like three to four chapters from now, maybe sooner than that; I'm not really sure yet.**


End file.
